CLXVIII. ECONOMIC ASPECT OF ARTESIAN BORING IN N\S.W. 
SUITABILITY OF ARTESIAN WATER FOR IRRIGATION. 
Of the many questions that arise in connection with 
irrigation, there are none so important as that relating to 
the suitability of the land and water for the purpose designed. 
Much has been said on the subject in this State, and the 
opinions of the pessimist have been frequently expressed 
adverse to the utilisation of artesian water for irrigation. 
These have in some instances, been given after a short 
experience of experiments made without any regard to the 
conditions under which they have heen carried out, and 
without any effort to ascertain the why and wherefore of 
the results achieved. The suitability of the water and 
land considered, so far as the alkaline constituents are con- 
cerned, is of the first importance, and has, so far as I am 
aware, been absolutely neglected in the private enterprise 
undertaken in this State. No considerable enterprise has 
been undertaken in America, of late years, without fully 
establishing a fact, viz. the suitability of the land and water 
for irrigation purposes, upon which the whole success or 
otherwise of the undertaking rests, by a reference to the 
agricultural chemist and analyst. A very great feature 
of this is made at the University of California, at Berkeley, 
where the question has been dealt with in an exhaustive 
and clear manner by Mr. H. W. Hilgard, Professor of 
Agricultural Chemistry at the University. I visited 
Berkeley University and had the opportunity of hearing 
Professors Wilson and Hilgard explain the matter, and was 
at the same time, furnished with copies of their bulletins 
dealing with the subject. Professor Hilgard was also kind 
enough to furnish me with copies of other papers on the 
subject, prepared by him. One of them, read before the 
Irrigation Congress, at Lincoln and Sacramento, is so 
educational and instructive, that any curtailment or précis 
of it would fail to give us the same grasp of the subject as 
